‘Breaking Bad’ Series Finale Will Be ‘Victorious,’ Not Open-Ended

Sad as it is, the end is near for AMC’s Breaking Bad, with the first of eight final episodes set to air in August. However, as that conclusion inches closer, questions remain with regard to what sort of ending we can expect.

Creator Vince Gilligan is surely sensitive to those questions and concerns, and in a new interview, he’s pulling back the veil ever so slightly to talk about the general tone of the ending and whether or not it’ll be open-ended.

Here’s what Gilligan had to say:

“Anyone anxious that there won’t be resolution enough at the end of these eight episodes can rest assured that the story very much reaches resolution. It will not end in any kind of open-ended sense.”

It’s nice to hear that Gilligan doesn’t feel the need to leave a burning bag of unanswered questions on our doorstep. It’s also nice to know that Gilligan feels like the finale will be “victorious,” though it’s anyone’s guess what that means precisely.

In the interview with The Daily Beast, Gilligan also went on to talk about his struggle to come to the series’ conclusion, saying:

“I was very nervous for the last year that we didn’t have an interesting enough way to wrap up ‘Breaking Bad.’ I have to say that we were in the woods for a long time with these final eight episodes. Creatively, I felt like I couldn’t see the forest for the trees, and I was sort of trying to hack my way through the jungle of this story.”

Luckily, though, after all that, Gilligan seems satisfied with where the show ends up.

“I’m very proud of these final eight. They go like gangbusters. There is no downtime in them. We are racing to the finish. I think they end the show in as satisfying a manner as we could possibly come up with.”

Now, obviously, this is Gilligan’s story to tell and we’re all merely along for the ride, but after less than universally adored finales for other acclaimed and complex dramas (e.g., like Lost and TheSopranos), the pressure is surely on for the creator to deliver. Fairly or unfairly, shows can sometimes be deemed an overall failure or success by their conclusions

Alas, Gilligan’s words only give us one person’s biased opinion of what the finale will look like, but it’s somewhat heartening to know that he has labored over the last few episodes in an effort to end Breaking Bad in a manner befitting its legacy.